Computer components such as memory are typically accessible from different locations in any given system. On a computer motherboard, for example, a Level 1 cache is located on the IC chip, while the Level 2 cache is frequently located in nearby modules. To access the main memory, an electrical or electronic buss is commonly used to transmit signals between the CPU and the main memory of the computer, or as the case may be, of the video module or plug-in card. In practice, the speed or performance of a computer (or of the video module or plug-in card) is very often more limited by capabilities of the buss between memory and CPU and its design, than by the operating speed of the microprocessor.
Traditional approaches to memory buss structures and methods for their creation have thus far been limited to the use of circuit traces that are an integral part of the circuit board that interconnects the memory modules to the CPU. This has not been a significant matter of concern in the past, because memory devices operated fairly slowly. With newer memory architectures, however, it is possible to run memory much faster, but even this improvement has been impeded by buss design. Thus, the full capabilities of the memory components are typically not achieved.
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